Hello,
Here are some general questions that we ask our affiliates-to-be. Thanks! --Maor X (talk) 18:30, 28 September 2013 (UTC)

Who are the people behind this application?

How many? (Is the data in Meta current? Please give the most up-to-date info!)

There are about 15 persons willing to help right now but I can say we can find more poeple if we publicize a little

Any prominent Wiki[pm]edians?

Yes, there are two crats, 7 sysops, and so many other people who are currently work on Persian Wikipedia

In which communities are they active in?

It's specially for Persian Wikipedia right now but we are planning to expend it to other projects,

Where have you publicised your organization to gather members? Have you done outreach throughout the projects to recruit interested people?

for publicizing it I just sent a notice in Persian Wikipedia's VP and asked people to say their opinions

What is the mission, or "thematic focus" of your organization?

If I get you right, We want to work on improving Persian language projects e.g. We want to have an activity and make Persian Wikivoyage happen (and We are finding text donation for fa.wy), or we are working on finding funds and proper people to work and make a brand-new free Persian font (which Persian language doesn't have a proper free font right now) and similar activities

Could you give a short overview of the history of your organization up to now?

We are having Wikimeetups since 2007 and not four or five person meet-ups, sometimes it's up to 15 (We had to split people to split up people!), We talk and we make plans how to do development tasks and what will be our next development plan. I can send you some pictures of it if you want.

Could you give us a short overview of the most recent (e.g., last 6 months) activities the association has done?

We had several meetups in the last 6 months, which they were focused on developments projects like free font, SSL issue, e.g. this plan of development came out of one of our meetups, we had a get-together in Wikimania 2013 and we talked about structure of this thematic organization and I brought up the structure in the community of fa.wp and we worked on it online and offline, another thing is We received some donations and we used it to hire people to work on some hard and hand-needed tasks we needed to be done in order to improve Persian wikipedia, that donations affected and improved Persian Wikipedia deeply if I want to give you an example I need to say because of that, now Persian Wikipedia has a very detailed and good database of Landmarks and Villages of Iran, It has like 50K unique articles about places in Iran.

What kind of activities are planned for the future in the organisation?

Generally any development of Persian language in WMF projects, but I want to give you a detailed list of our activities, It will be very long

What are the working languages of your organization? Is it mandatory to use Farsi in the association? Does the organisation accept members that do not speak Farsi, but still wish to promote its culture? How have you dealt with such situations?

Answering this question is a little hard because I need to explain, Persian language is not just a language, 1-It's a macrolanguage that means It has variations (like en-gb and en-us, it has Iranian Persian (which has variants too) and Dari and Tajik, Tajik uses different writing system but It's still Persian) for example we have a Tajik Wikipedian who is really willing to help us (not the user who translated this page) and so we can't use Persian as a mandatory and sometimes we may need someone technical outside of Persian community to help us, people like User:Amire80 2- Persian is culture too, this language is pretty rich in poetry and literature, It has a great history, and someone who is willing to help us in Persian culture related topics is warmly welcomed no matter how much that person knows Persian.

Your page is also translated into Tajik. What about speakers of the other Iranian languages like Luri, Bakhtiari (and others) and their culture? Will your organisation also deal with that?

As I said above Persian doesn't mean a language who Iranians speaks, People of Iranian languges are welcome too Actually we helped this languages and their cultures (in WMF projects) several times and they were represented in our meetups. Some people of this organization who have no relation to other languages of Iran, came to their projects and helped them

Do you have an overview of how many Wikimedians would like to join when founded as a Thematic Org?

It's safe to say we have 20 to work part time and 5 as board and devoted

Do you only accept Wiki/p/m/edia editors, or also non-editors?

non-editors are welcome, because focus of our activities sometimes we need someone outside of WMF projects (as I exampled above) and sometimes we help Persian language in general (e.g. free font or free Persian OCR or projects like that)

Do you have a draft of the bylaws/statutes of the organization? If so, can you publish them on Meta so we can start having a look at them?

not yet but we will start pretty soon

How do you see the relationship and overlap between the thematic organization and the online wikiproject(s) that deal with the Persian language and culture in the different Wikipedias? For example, do you think the thematic organization has a role in editorial decisions on the online content?

Community will always decide, for example if we spend money and time on free Persian font, and community won't like it, we will not enforce that font on them

How can wehelpyou?

Help us on writing bylaws, help us on legal issues specially registering the thematic org. and help us on having mailing list, subdomain of WM (fa.wikimedia.org), help us on making a blog, (technically I know how to do making mailing list and this kind of stuff but I need AffCom's green light)

as this application process was restarted, this time for a user group, I asked if the questions above are still valid - and that was the case. Hence, only a few follow-up questions based on them:

With regards to the focus/scope, would a good summary of the focus be (without examples): "To support and enhance the content of Persian language Wikimedia projects through editing, collaborations with organizations, technical development and organizing activities both online and offline"? Please correct me where I misinterpreted - I'm trying to word it such that it is easily comparable to other scopes.

Could you update the history question a little bit about the past few months?

Is there a link to meetup pages (it's OK if the pages are not in English)

Please let us know if there is currently any way we can further support your efforts. Effeietsanders (talk) 10:35, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
Hi,

For your first question: the answer in one word is "outreach", we want to outreach for Persian language in WMF projects (and sometimes free content in general)

for past few months: We had three meet ups, two of them was with Dr. w:James Heilman and at the first we talked about improving medical content in Persian WP and collaboration with projects like translators without borders at the second we had a workshop in "center for exceptional students" in w:Tehran University of Medical Sciences for medical students. and the third one was a get-together for several issues ongoing in Persian Wikipedia (including technical and recent important disputes).

unfortunately because of security reasons we don't make page for our meet-ups (but we keep track of records in our private PCs) and sometimes we just make a page of decisions after the meet up and even we don't say it is output of a meet up, we say we want to do these

I am pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for the 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections. This year the Board and the FDC Staff are looking for a diverse set of candidates from regions and projects that are traditionally under-represented on the board and in the movement as well as candidates with experience in technology, product or finance. To this end they have published letters describing what they think is needed and, recognizing that those who know the community the best are the community themselves, the election committee is accepting nominations for community members you think should run and will reach out to those nominated to provide them with information about the job and the election process.

This year, elections are being held for the following roles:

Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees is the decision-making body that is ultimately responsible for the long term sustainability of the Foundation, so we value wide input into its selection. There are three positions being filled. More information about this role can be found at the board elections page.

Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC)
The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) makes recommendations about how to allocate Wikimedia movement funds to eligible entities. There are five positions being filled. More information about this role can be found at the FDC elections page.

Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) Ombud
The FDC Ombud receives complaints and feedback about the FDC process, investigates complaints at the request of the Board of Trustees, and summarizes the investigations and feedback for the Board of Trustees on an annual basis. One position is being filled. More information about this role can be found at the FDC Ombudsperson elections page.

The candidacy submission phase lasts from 00:00 UTC April 20 to 23:59 UTC May 5 for the Board and from 00:00 UTCApril 20 to 23:59 UTC April 30 for the FDC and FDC Ombudsperson. This year, we are accepting both self-nominations and nominations of others. More information on this election and the nomination process can be found on the 2015 Wikimedia elections page on Meta-Wiki.

Please feel free to post a note about the election on your project's village pump. Any questions related to the election can be posted on the talk page on Meta, or sent to the election committee's mailing list, board-elections -at- wikimedia.org

Wikimedia user groups are groups of Wikimedia users who support and promote the Wikimedia projects in the offline world by organizing meetups and other projects. The Wikimedia Affiliations Committee's responsibilities include approval of new Wikimedia user groups.

The committee will seek community input until Friday, May 1, 2015. The committee will then review the community's input, and publish the new process and agreements on Meta-Wiki. The committee will again seek community input approximately six months after any changes are adopted to gauge effectiveness and if any additional changes are necessary.

The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) makes recommendations about how to allocate Wikimedia movement funds to eligible entities. There are five positions on the committee being filled.

The FDC Ombudsperson receives complaints and feedback about the FDC process, investigates complaints at the request of the Board of Trustees, and summarizes the investigations and feedback for the Board of Trustees on an annual basis. One position is being filled.

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is the ultimate governing authority of the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization registered in the United States. The Wikimedia Foundation manages many diverse projects such as Wikipedia and Commons.

The Wikimedia Affiliations Committee is pleased to introduce the launch of the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list, which is basically a place for all the affiliates (chapters, thematic organizations, user groups) to discuss issues related to affiliates, make announcements to other affiliates, and collaborate on activities and community-wide events. The idea is to help facilitate the dialogue affiliates across our movement, plus collaborative discussions like community-wide activities, joint edit-a-thons, regional conferences, blog/report posts, or other communications from affiliates.

Each Wikimedia movement affiliate is allocated three spots on the mailing list. All affiliates may contact the Affiliations Committee to request additional spots if needed.

Wikipedia 15 now has a mark! Be sure to check out the “Material” section of the Wikipedia 15 meta page to see the design, and learn about how to use it. This year's mark is meant to be fun, interactive, and infinitely customisable. We can’t wait to see how you and your Wikimedia community use it!

As some of your might be aware, a small group of Wikimedia volunteers have proposed a banner campaign informing Wikipedia readers about the urgent situation of our fellow Wikipedian, open source software developer and Creative Commons activist, Bassel Khartabil. An exemplary banner and an explanatory page have now been prepared, and translated into about half a dozen languages by volunteer translators.

We are seeking your involvement to decide if the global Wikimedia community approves starting a banner campaign asking Wikipedia readers to call on the Syrian government to release Bassel from prison. We understand that a campaign like this would be unprecedented in Wikipedia's history, which is why we're seeking the widest possible consensus among the community.

The Affiliations Committee – the committee responsible for guiding volunteers in establishing Wikimedia chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups – is looking for new members!

The main role of the Affiliations Committee is to guide groups of volunteers that are interested in forming Wikimedia affiliates. We review applications from new groups, answer questions and provide advice about the different Wikimedia affiliation models and processes, review affiliate bylaws for compliance with requirements and best practices, and advise the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees on issues connected to chapters, thematic organizations and Wikimedia user groups.

The committee consists of twelve members, six of whom are selected every twelve months for staggered two-year terms.

Key skills

Being a part of the Affiliations Committee requires communication with volunteers all over the world, negotiating skills, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to understand legal texts. We try to get a healthy mix of different skill sets in our members. The key skills and experience that we look for in candidates are:

Excitement by the challenge of helping to empower groups of volunteers worldwide.

Willingness to process applications through a set, perhaps bureaucratic process.

Readiness to participate in political discussions on the role and future of affiliates, models of affiliations, and similar questions.

Availability of up to 5 hours per week, and the time to participate in a monthly ~2 hour voice/video meeting.

International orientation.

Very good communication skills in English.

Ability to work and communicate with other languages and cultures.

Strong understanding of the structure and work of affiliates and the WMF.

Knowledge of different legal systems and experience in community building and organising are a plus.

Effective communication skills in other languages are a major plus.

Experience with or in an active affiliate is a major plus.

Willingness to use one's real name in committee activities (including contacts with current and potential affiliates) when appropriate.

We are looking for people who are not afraid of the workload and are motivated by helping other volunteers to get organized and form communities that further our mission around the world.

Selection process

As a reflection of our commitment to openness, transparency, and bilateral engagement with the Wikimedia community, the 2015 member selection process will include a public review and comment period. All applications received by the committee will be posted on Meta (at Affiliations Committee/Candidates/2015), and the community will be invited to provide comments and feedback about each candidate.

At the end of the public comment period, the applications will be voted on by the members of the committee who are not seeking re-election, taking into account comments put forward by the committee's members, advisors, WMF staff and board liaisons, and the community. A final decision will be made by mid-January 2016, with new members expected to join later that month.

How to apply

If you are interested in joining the committee, please send an application to affcom@lists.wikimedia.org by 31 December 2015. You will get a confirmation that your application was received.

Your application should include the following:

Your full name

Your contact information (including e-mail address and username)

A statement describing your relevant experience, skills, and motivation for joining the committee.

Your statement will be published for community review and feedback, so please do not include any information that you are not comfortable sharing.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me and/or the committee as a whole. We are happy to chat or have a phone call with anyone about our work if this helps them decide to apply. Please distribute this call among your networks, and do apply if you are interested!

People around the world are getting involved in the celebration and have started adding their events on Meta Page. While we are celebrating Wikipedia's birthday, we hope that all projects and affiliates will be able to utilize this celebration to raise awareness of our community's efforts.

Haven’t started planning? Don’t worry, there’s lots of ways to get involved. Here are some ideas:

Design a Wikipedia 15 logo. In place of a single icon for Wikipedia 15, we’re making dozens. Add your own with something fun and representative of your community. Just use the visual guide so they share a common sensibility.

Hi all. Iran will participate in Wiki Loves Monuments for the second year. If you are interested in helping with the contest in any way, please get in touch with me and/or add your name to this page (in Persian). :) --LilyOfTheWest (talk) 05:38, 23 July 2016 (UTC)